Calibration Issues of Tekscan Systems for Human Pressure Assessment

The Tekscan pressure sensor system has been designed for relatively easy measurement of contact pressures between two opposing surfaces. However, several factors are known to affect Tekscan sensor output. This paper reports on two pilot studies which were done to investigate the effects of contact surface compliance and changes in the system hardware on Tekscan sensor output In the first study linear calibration curves were calculated for a single Tekscan sensor array placed on surfaces of varying compliance. The slopes of the curves and variability in both the slopes and intercepts were found to be affected by surface compliance. In the second study, absolute percentage differences in the raw output data bits between a series of Tekscan sensor-cuff combinations were calculated. These differences ranged from 5-32. The results of these studies indicate that careful attention must be paid to system set-up and calibration when using that Tekscan pressure sensor system to measure contact pressures.